Restored drive-up box is silver lining in post office protest

Houston’s Southmore Station patrons will have at least one drive-up mail collection box, such as this one, re-installed in a better-lit area of their post office at 4110 Almeda. (Dan Wallach | The Beaumont Enterprise)

Mitchell told the crowd that his recommendation will be a factor in what Postal Service officials in Washington ultimately decide about the Southmore Station’s potential relocation.

Among the questions and comments that rose from the room, Houston Housing Authority vice chairwoman Assata Richards asked why drive-up collection boxes had been removed from the station. Richards, a Project Row Houses program director who ran for the Houston City Council District D seat last year, also opined that the station must be quite busy because it took four months for her to acquire a post office box for her nonprofit organization.

Like the possible consolidation of six Houston post offices, residents said, the reasons why drive-up mail drops were removed at Southmore Station were not shared with the community.

“We keep asking questions because we don’t understand the process and the criteria for the decision-making,” Richards told postal service officials. “I am asking for us to have another presentation where you explain the research and how you came up with that criteria, so we can build trust that this is being done in good faith.”

After a station supervisor explained that the drive-up boxes were removed after four incidents of vandalism, Mitchell ended his remarks by announcing that at least one would be restored in a better-lit area of the property.